Martin Luther

MARTIN LUTHER: THE RELUCTANT REVOLUTIONARY
PROF. M. M. NINAN
We must be aware that slavery was supported by the Roman Catholic Church under the
pretension that all Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob had slaves. Slavery was part of the social
structure. A freedom struggle inevitably made an imbalance in the society. This is the same
argument presented by the Indian Hindu theologists against any violation of caste system. In
Hinduism, God incarnated whenever the balance of the social system was violated to restore order..
Since basis of all rationalist struggle was based on selfish motives and not on love it inevitably led
to violence. Yet to cease to struggle or oppose injustice is a gross misinterpretation of who God is.
Yet it was the very Christianity which led to colonisation and slave trade. Yet eventually, it was the
Christian morality that led to the emancipation of slaves. Deep within the Christian morale is the
struggle for freedom and justice. We have seen this Christian diochotamy in the Agrarian
Freedom Struggle in Kerala. I am sure it was there everywhere..
The early 1500s was a time of many changes in Germany. In general, the economy was good, and
the peasant farmers were able to provide for themselves and their families reasonably well.
Peasants were the lowest members of society and had few rights. Generally they worked mines
or farmed land and raised livestock belonging to a prince or nobleman, could not marry without
permission, did not own any land, and were taxed heavily. They were much the same level as
plebeians, or commoners, townsmen who worked for craftsmen or merchants at subsistence levels
or were unemployed.
In Europe they were all Christians both the exploited and the exploiter. The exploited looked
forward to an escape by the power of God through faith through the Gideons of the nation. But they
all invariably failed within the Christian movement sabotaged by fellow Christians, that 400 years
later Karl Marx could say, “Religion is the Opium of Man”
We should remember that Luther himself originally belonged to this class. His father was a
miner. He had a bringing up which reflected this broken society. With the help of the rare
education he came to rise in the ladder. We should not forget that he was protected by
Lords and Princes. So he had a double obligation - both to the lower middle class and to the
Higher Oppressors. It is this double character that was reflected in his change of opinions
and outbursts we see in his dealing with the peasant struggles.
The Peasant War of Germany of the period was another repetition of these events. Reformation
and its success brought in a new expectation of God’s intervention in history - here and now.
There was heightened end-time expectations -Christ is coming back to establish this egalitarian
society on earth. Among them those who led this struggle was Thomas Müntzer.
http://www.newadvent.org/ the Catholic Encyclopedia describes the social situation of the period
thus: “….the restive peasants, victims of oppression and poverty, after futile and sporadic
uprisings, lapsed into stifled but sullen and resentful malcontents; the unredressed wrongs of the
burghers and labourers in the populous cities clamoured for a change, and the victims were
prepared to adopt any method to shake off disabilities daily becoming more irksome; the increasing
expense of living, the decreasing economic advancement, goaded the impecunious knights to
desperation, their very lives since 1495 being nothing more than a struggle for existence……”
WAR OF PEASANTS
Reformation was an uprising against the long sustained religious hierarchy of Papacy and Rome.
This brought about a development of freedom movement even within the feudal lords. The new
inspiration of freedom found its expression among the peasantry of Germany. The revolt originated
in opposition to the heavy burdens of taxes and duties on the German serfs, who had no legal
rights and no opportunity to improve their lot.. Inspired by changes brought by the Reformation,
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